Oak Tree Musings
Green Spring Clean!
I love this time of year! Days are slowly getting longer; the sun is warmer (when it does come around), and everything is ’springing’ to life. It’s time to fling open some windows, let some fresh air in and get down to spring cleaning and organizing!
In order to get down to cleaning, I need to have things organized, first. As a homeschool family, I believe we are extra challenged to keep clutter at bay! All those projects, papers, supplies, books, and wait - why is there a clay canoe in my bathroom sink? (As my youngest daughter admitted, “I wanted to see if it would float”. Hmm, well…okay, she IS learning, I tell myself!) If you are a homeschool parent, you may know exactly what I am talking about!
As much as I love all of my children’s beautiful writings, projects, creations, copy work verses, math lessons, craft projects….I know you’re nodding your head right now… reality though is that I just can’t keep it all, keep my sanity and keep our home organized! Keeping our homeschool projects and such organized can be a challenge. So, as we go about our learning we keep record and memory of projects and such by taking pictures. This works for us! Don’t get me wrong, we keep some special things such as a poem, special story, etc. in a scrapbook that we have for each child, along with pictures of what they’ve done as well. Not only does this serve as a very special ‘Memory Book’ of sorts, but it keeps things organized in a manageable way that is very simple.
Once the clutter of paperwork is cleaned out, we go through our curriculum. This is a great time to take stock of what we have on hand for next year! What worked? (What didn’t?) What will need to be purchased? What is my oldest child done with that I can reuse with a younger child? What needs to be tossed?
We do the same with clothing; winter clothing gets tucked away for next year and out comes spring/summer clothing. Things that need to be passed down to the next child get moved, things that need repair go into the sewing area, and things that are beyond repair go in the ‘rag bag’ for use in cleaning if they have no other use. I like to have 3 boxes or large plastic containers available when I start this process. I use one for things to donate, one for things to sell (or give away) and one for things that need to be tossed, along with a large canvas type bag or ’stuff sack’ I use as the ‘rag bag’. These come with me through the house as I embark on this process. I go to each room or area until all has been gone through. When I do my Spring Cleaning, I get brutal and toss, toss, toss! Once I’ve combed through each room, it’s time to get down to cleaning!
A Few “Green Spring Clean” Recipes:
Although it seems we clean all the time, this time of year we deep clean! Everything gets dusted, wiped down, and cleaned off. It’s just amazing how many dust bunnies can accumulate in such short order!
I use natural, homemade, non toxic cleaners for everything. Not only are these ‘green’ but they are a huge money saver! I use a variety of recipes depending on what I have on hand. I love to use essential oils — not only their pure fragrances but also for their anti-bacterial properties! But if you don’t have essential oils in your home at this time, you can simply make up your own natural cleaners without them.
Here is a short list of supplies to gather, right from your kitchen and laundry room:
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Lemons
Salt
Borax
Olive Oil
Now gather up some old sour cream containers (or used glass canning jars with lids), a couple of empty sprayer bottles, some of those old articles of clothing that are in the rag bag, and maybe a green ’scratchie pad’.
In just a few minutes you can have basic, frugal, non-toxic cleaners that WORK to clean your home. Let’s get these items all together and get going on a “Green Spring Clean”!
Surface Cleaner
This works great on counter tops; I use it on the kitchen floor for spills and such too! Take one of your empty sprayer bottles, and add 2 cups of warm water, 2 TBS of Vinegar, 1TBS Borax, and 1TBS Lemon Juice. Shake it up well and voila; you have a multipurpose spray cleaner that is a great surface cleaner!
Bathroom Scrub
Grab another one of your old containers. Add in a 1/2 cup of both Baking Soda and Borax, 1TBS of Salt and sprinkle in drops of Lemon Juice (about a TBS full will do the job). Now, I say “sprinkle in” because you don’t want your liquid caking in to one big clump with your dry ingredients! Mix this slowly; as you add your lemon juice a drop or so at a time. Once you have it all in the container, put the lid on tightly and shake it up to mix a bit more and you have a great non-toxic scrub for your toilets, showers and tubs! Now with some elbow grease and one of those green scratchie pads and/or toilet brush, you’ll have sparkling clean tubs and toilets!
Carpet Cleaner
Grab one of those handy empty sprayer bottles! Pour in 2 cups of hot water & 2 TBS baking soda. Shake well and spray over the carpets lightly, let it sit for awhile and vacuum up. This freshens up the carpeting without those toxic, dusty powders or those terribly toxic carpet cleaners! I like to add essential oils to this mixture to kill germs and add a nice scent too! 20 drops of Lavender essential oil will do the job (or any essential oil you like that has anti bacterial properties that you like).
Now that we have a few basic cleaners made up, how about a wonderful Spring/Summer Potpourri blend to bring a little ’spring’ into the home? I love to have our home smell nice and inviting, and here is a potpourri blend that you can easily make up and set out in a pretty dish, or toss a cup into a simmering pot of water! You can even take a handful and put it into those single, old socks that you can never find the match for… tie the end in a knot and you have the most frugal sachets around! Tuck them into dresser drawers and closets for lovely fragrance throughout the home! (No one will ever see them and they use those mystery single socks that you’d just toss anyway!)
Spring & Summer Potpourri Blend
1 Cup Dried Lavender Buds/Flowers
1 Cup Dried Rose Petals
½ Cup Dried Rose Buds
1 TBS Whole Cloves
½ Cup Dried Chamomile Flowers
½ Cup Dried Calendula Flowers
Place all ingredients in a wide bowl, mix together well; you can also drizzle 20 drops of Lavender essential oil and 20 drops Geranium essential oil over the mixture and mix well. The remainder you can leave sealed in a container or Ziploc type bag for about a week, shaking up and tossing around the ingredients every few days. I store in Ziploc type bag and replace as needed. This also works beautifully in homemade, hand sewn pretty sachets!
If you’re looking for more natural cleaning recipes, come on over to our website and check out our Homestead Simplicity: Natural Clean EBook. It’s LOADED with naturally clean recipes!
As you can see, with just some simple organizing, basic ingredients and elbow grease you can have a ‘green spring clean’ too!
Joyfully Home keeping,
Lisa
“She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 10:27, NASB
Straw Bale Happenings......Shopping for Windows!
Hello to all our homesteading friends! We hope all is well in your little corner of the world today.Fred and I have been asked to blog about our straw bale home building project. As many of you may know, we are building a house made of straw bales! We're doing quite a bit of the work ourselves to eliminate the high cost and a 30 year mortgage. We're hoping in the end to have a low mortgage for about 5 years. We do not want a mortgage payment when we retire or the high costs of heating and maintaining our home! Our first plan was to have NO mortgage payment. But that would have been very difficult to do. Maybe if we were younger and had more time? So I encourage you younger folks to think about getting out of debt and building debt free now....while you are young. It's such a good feeling!
There are a few reasons we are building a straw bale home.
1.) The "R" value is high........35 - 50! That's good. Average is 25 in a standard home.
2.) It conserves energy and saves you a lot of $. It lowers the heating and cooling utility bill big time.
3.) Anyone can do it! It's tedious work......plastering those bales of straw, but even a child can help build a straw bale house.
We're at the point where we are doing some of the work ourselves and doing some pricing around.
This past weekend, Fred and I visited a unique store in downtown Syracuse run by Habitat for Humanity. They recycle surplus building materials that are donated for new building projects on a budget... maybe some low cost materials for our construction project! We would like to find good windows at a bargain price. We also checked out the kitchen cupboards and interior doors. It was time well spent. I think we may go back and buy some picture windows for the sun porch when the time comes.
Click for Habitat For Humanity Store Photos
Thank you for joining us in our adventure! We will strive to keep you up to date on what we are doing. Some weeks may be more interesting than others.....depending on where we are at and what we are doing.
Fred & Teresa and family live in central N.Y in a rural farming community. They enjoy living the country life on their 1 acre homestead "Red Maple Roost!" Our goal is to one day be "off the grid." We strive to live a more self sustaining lifestyle on a shoe string. Blessings one and all!
Oh, that's good . . . no, that's bad . . .
Bad news - Ok, I may have to stick to a lifetime of granny squares 
! I tried the pattern that I mentioned yesterday and my square turned out to be a pentagon - ugh. I then tried two more patterns and just wasn't sure how to read the pattern. I'm such a visual person that I really need to watch someone work a pattern before I "get it."
Good news - So, I looked through what I had here at home and found a modified granny square pattern that will still work very well with the 5 colors that I chose. After spending a good portion of the day failing at three patterns, I'm heading to bed to read a bit before falling asleep!
Bad news - My son didn't make the track team. He was actually smiling when he told me because he admitted that he really didn't want to be on it anyway, but he had tried his best during tryouts. There were just a TON of kids that tried out this year and they can only take so many.
Good news - we'll have a lot more free time - ha!
Bad news - I'm not sure that I will see my daughter much next year due to homework 
She is taking 5 AP (English, US Hist, US Govt, World History and Calculus) and 2 Honors (Biology, Chemistry) classes next year.
Good news - my daughter is ranked #16 out of 377 sophomores at her school. I am sooooo proud of her. She'll take another 4 AP classes her senior year. If she does well on her AP exams, she could end up with a year's worth of college credit before she even sets foot on a college campus - coolies!
I took food out to someone who just lost her husband about a week ago and then I enjoyed looking at photos of a cousin's recent baby showers on her Facebook page. So, all in all, it was a day of ups and downs. I hope tomorrow is a better day b/c I'm exhausted!
I heard a HEALTHY SQUIRMY heartbeat today!!!! YEAH!!
Today I had an OB appointment to hear a heartbeat and hopefully determine due date. Now if you have read previous posts, you know Doc didn't think I was pregnant. He didn't believe me after 4 home tests, a bloodtest, and morning sickness. LMSO He told me before Christmas I wasn't ovulating and couldn't get pregnant, so he didn't believe me. Now, God is good ok???? Cause I was able to tell doc.....My God is bigger than your tests! LOL He told me he wouldn't believe me till he heard a heartbeat, so today.....when he found it.....he smiled and said...listen to that!! He told me he was 100% sure I was pregnant! HE believes me finally! So of course, me being onery.......I thumbed my nose at him and said, I TOLD YOU DOC!!! He just laughed and laughed at me. He said the baby is squirmy and very active already and the heartbeat was nice and strong! So, I go for a sonogram on April 6th and he will officially tell me my due date. But for now, it is tentatively October 15th. We are excited and thrilled of course.
*NEW* Econobusters / Molly membership program
To get ALL of the details about the new Molly Membership, click on the button above. However, here are the highlights:
- It is only $3.95/month to join and you get the new digests each month (they retail $4.95, so you save $1 just by joining!). You can cancel at any time - no questions asked. You can also pay for an entire yearly membership so that you don't have to worry about remembering monthly payments.
- free member's only downloads and special resources
- member's only contests, tutorials and articles
This program just opened this month, so there isn't a ton of stuff there right now. You get the March digest as soon as you join in the membership area. There is also a Resource list with lots of frugal links to check out. There are also some free downloads available and some discounts for members.
Molly's Money-Saving Digests are a good bargain for those trying to save a few dollars and wanting to live simpler, more frugal lives. They contain lots of great info that anyone can use.
You can also find great deals, freebies, recipes, and more at the Econobusters blog.
(Disclaimer: I do work for TOS, the parent-company of Econobusters, but I just couldn't resist sharing some good frugal info!)
Homestead Quote of the Day...
My next crochet project
After finishing my blanket earlier today, I bought some pretty yarn at Hobby Lobby and spent the late afternoon/early evening looking for a good afghan pattern. I was going to make a sampler quilt with all kinds of patterns, but I decided to find an afghan pattern that uses the SAME block, but changes the colors around. Here's the pattern I've chosen from Lion Brand yarns. It is another granny square pattern, but I need something easy to work on during the track season and this is a bit more difficult because I have to change yarn colors often.
Here are the yarn colors that I've chosen to use. Where you see the tan/beige above is where I'll use the brown that is below. The whites will stay the same, the dark pink will be the dark teal, the dark orange will be the light teal and the lighter orange wil be the yellow.
This yarn is very soft and inexpensive. It's the "store brand" for Hobby Lobby - each skein was only $2.99. I want to make a large afghan, one that can cover you up from head to toe while watching TV (that's how the guys in my household watch TV - ha!), so I'm glad that I bought 2 skeins of each color because the original pattern was only about 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft. I can't believe I found a pattern that went so well with the colors that I bought! I'm sure most people choose a pattern and then buy the yarn.
I hope to have a couple of the squares to show you later in the week!
Whey, Cheesemaking, & the Real Food Challenge Update
03:55 PM, Mar. 15, 2010 .. Posted in Traditional Nutrition .. 3 comments .. Link
Whey is such a good helper in your kitchen. It has a lot of minerals. One tablespoon of whey in a little water will help digestion. It is a remedy that will keep your muscles young. It will keep your joints moveable and ligaments elastic. When age wants to bend your back, take whey ... ~ Hannah Kroeger Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen (taken from Nourishing Traditions)
I think I should definitely start including more whey into my diet; young muscles, moveable joints and elasticity of ligaments will come in handy!
I purchased goat's milk and organic non-homogenized cow's milk yesterday for cheese and yogurt making, so now I'll be able to have some good quality whey, as well. I'd rather have raw milk; but you do the best you can, and at the moment, this is the best quality milk I can get.
Now, to decide what to make with my milk, suggestions anyone? I will definitely make a quart of yogurt from the cow's milk, probably some buttermilk, and I was thinking of trying one of the soft cheeses ... I saw a recipe for lemon cheese in Home Cheesemaking that sounded very interesting, and I already have the ingredients for that one. Those of you who make goat's milk cheese, please tell me what type of soft cheeses are simple to make and the tastiest. Recipes would be most welcome, of course!
I know I neglected to post the last update on the Real Food Challenge; but as only a couple of people seemed to be participating, and I didn't do so well with the last weeks of the challenge I decided to skip it. Let's just say that I keep my food as real as is practical, and still have plenty of room for improvement ! Val, and anyone else who participated, feel free to comment and share how you fared in the last week of the challenge.
I'll be waiting for your cheesemaking suggestions!
Blessings,
Granny Square baby blanket done!
This is my 2nd crocheted blanket and I'm happy with it for the most part. I had a few issues with the tension of the varigated yarn and so it turned out a little "wonky," but since it won't be hanging on a wall, I'm ok with it! I haven't decided if I'm going to add anything to the center or not. I may try my hand at crocheting a larger flower - we'll see how much time I have this week.
A horrible week last week
Good morning, this Monday morning I am praying that we are going to have a much better week. Last Monday my daughter, daughter found out her pregnancy was not viable. The options were bleak, wait until she miscarry, take a pill to cause a termination within 24-48 hours or plan for a DNC. This was her 5th pregnancy but we were all just so excited for another baby in the family. As far as I am concerned this baby was already part of our family, and I loved it soooo much. I had already bought a few sleepers, and baby t's. We all cried with her until it felt like we couldn't cry any more. My DH and I keep her other children, and helped out all we could, but in a case like this you tend to just feel helpless. I know all is in Gods hands and the precious little child is now with our Father, in heaven, happy and carefree, but Ughhhhh the heart ache it leaves. It is so hard to help your adult child, when you are at a lack for reasoning. Please pray for her and her family as the go through these rough times. I believe in the power of prayer, and the Grace of God.This is a new week and I am hoping with all hopes we will all be able to put one foot in front of the other and move forward. I have to remind myself how blessed we are, Our 4 children are healthy, their children are healthy and happy, and even Jeff and I are healthy and happy too.... we have many reasons to be grateful. So, today, I put my faith in God and know that his will is what is best, come what may. There is a saying I have held close to my heart for about 5 years now......"IF GOD BRINGS YOU TO IT.....GOD WILL BRING YOU THROUGH IT!" I have this posted on my fridge and in my car.
Blessings to all and thank you for listening.
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